Dexter 8.12 Series Finale Review: The Storm Has Come

For all those that have yet to watch the series finale of Dexter entitled ‘Remember the Monsters?’, and wish to watch it spoiler free, avert your eyes from the screen now. As usual, my reviews are not a spoiler free environment. THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD! You’ve been warned.

I am so unbelievably angry that that is the way in which the showrunners decided end the series. Yes, I certainly saw some parts of it coming, but to this extent, it’s just outrageous to me. For one thing, who just dangles the idea that Deb will be okay, only to kill her in the end? This isn’t Grey’s Anatomy, this is Dexter, I don’t want to here shit about blood clots, and vegetative states. And this is coming from a person that finished the episode two hours ago, and had enough time to go grocery shopping, do the dishes, and let it settle in before I reviewed the episode. But I still feel the same.

Okay, let’s start back at the beginning. After the usual opening credits, and recap of the season up to this point, the show basically picks up shortly where it left off last week. Deb’s still conscious, which completely surprised me, I thought for sure she was either a goner right from the beginning, or at least going to be unconscious by the time paramedics got there, but she was still awake. I have to give the character credit for this, despite the likeliness that where they left her off last week, she should’ve been unconscious. Quinn shows his protective edge towards Deb by riding in the ambulance with her, and I absolutely love their dynamic, which pains me even more. In Deb’s self-sacrificing attempt to give her brother what should soon be a happy life, she refuses to let anyone call him in and let him know what’s happened to her, but all we know that wasn’t going to last.

Meanwhile, Dexter and Harrison are rushing to their gate, when Hannah calls stuck in a bathroom hiding from Elway. I have to say, with this, I’m happily surprised. I thought for sure the last episode was leading to Hannah getting caught, but no, Dexter ends up getting her out of this. Which leads to him getting the call about Deb, and he rushes to her side. Now this is where we get the cop out. Once the surgery is finished, Deb wakes up, and Dex and her have one of the better moments in this episode. She basically tells him her actions are not his fault, no matter what his brain makes him believe. If he actually took that to heart, I don’t understand how he could just abandon Hannah and his son, in the belief that his actions only ever hurt people. If you no longer feel the need to kill, then there would be no reason for you to go hunting other killers, and thus no moronic bad would come upon your family of your own accord, like the Trinity Killer, and Saxon.

Let’s talk about Saxon. What made him the best killer for a final season? And what was his point in this episode? He basically maims a couple people, gets caught, and ends up killed by the rightful hands of Dexter, but what did he really do in this episode? What was his point? It was like it was just a tiny little loose end that needed to be written out. Did anyone feel like he was a rehashed Trinity Killer? His entire point was to get someone Dexter loved out of the equation? Okay, so he’s not the worst serial killer this series has had of late, but he didn’t have that oomph a final season could’ve used. I mean, this season has been a bit lackluster for the most part, especially in the beginning, but this whole Brain Surgeon bit was a little too lacking.

I do have to say that I like that, for the most part, Hannah got to Argentina, and gets to have some semblance of a happy ending, and is basically becoming Harrison’s mother, but help me out with something. What legal rights does she have to him? I know she’s basically on the lam, but were documents forged to make it appear that she was his mother, at least in writing?

Here are a few more issues. Why in the hell did Dexter throw Deb overboard and not jump in after her? That I could get, but just throwing his sister into the ocean (did anyone else get reminded of Jack in Titanic in that moment?) where all his victims went, when she deserved a proper funeral for dying in the line of duty, was weird. Also, how did he ride into the storm and somehow manage to get to that lumberyard? And hadn’t he sold his boat? Though I did find it poetic to have it destroyed in the end. But why a freaking lumberyard? And what was with that random flashback to when Harrison was born?

I may have to come back to this review, because my brain is being very much scatterbrained at the moment, and I can’t so much organize my thoughts, so I’m going to leave this where it is, and rewatch the episode when I get a chance and update this later this week.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Best Lines:

“You’re such a friggin’ asshole.” – Deb to Quinn, after he tells her he’s riding in the ambulance with her.

“It’s not yours to screw up.” – Deb explaining rather poignantly to Dexter that her actions are not his fault.

All right, check this review later this week for an update. Otherwise, check in tomorrow for reviews of Bones, How I Met Your Mother, Sleepy Hollow, and The Blacklist. I’m off to go comfort myself with Buffy.

Unapologetically Me

In the interest of my journey, I thought I'd give you all a little starting off point. My life revolves around three key things, aside from writing and work. Family (to which I lump friends in with as I have so few close ones), my cat Aurora (or, as I call her Munchkin), and television. 

I watch a lot of television, it's a passion of mine. I'm currently obsessed with the show Chuck, having watched four of the five seasons in a matter of a few weeks. Right now, I'm re-watching the first season while I await the fifth season to get delivered from B.C. In the past I've been hooked on my currently all-time favourite series Buffy, as well as it's spin off series Angel.

Buffy has been in my life since I was little. I remember around the age of seven, curling up with my mom and younger sister and watching an episode whenever we could. It was first dvd I ever bought; it was the first series I owned completely. And it has been my favourite TV series ever since. The only two series that have ever come close to knocking it off as my all-time favourite series, are Veronica Mars (when I became obsessed with that series about five years ago), and my now second favourite series Chuck.

It doesn't take a lot for me to like a television show, aside from my dislike of reality TV, I can like almost anything, as long as there's growth. That need is why any of the CSI's or Law and Order's can no longer grab me; I can watch an episode here or there, but I can't watch it on a weekly basis. I also don't watch much in the way of cartoons, and have only ever liked three anime series enough to watch the bulk of them.

Anyways, the fact that it is easy enough to grab me with television, makes it very difficult to narrow down what I watch during the year, but it also makes it easy for me to be entertained, which is ultimately the point. In the past, aside from my aforementioned series', I've enjoyed the likes of Dark Angel, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Boy Meets World, Sailor Moon, Roswell, and numerous other series'.

I'm very easy-going when it comes to liking series', but not so easy-going when it comes to loving them. My top five in descending order are as follows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chuck, Angel, Gilmore Girls and Friends. Those are five series' I can watch over and over again, and it doesn't hurt that they've all got a large number of episodes to enjoy.

As is obvious by reading this post, I have a passion for television. The right scene can provoke an emotion that persuades you to lose yourself in a world that may not be possible otherwise. Music, cinematography, characters, writing, actors, and many more elements go into making such beauty arrive and exist for hopefully as much time as will allot it. Not only in television, but in film as well. They can bring you to your knees, make you weep, laugh, be shocked, get angry, find yourself afraid. All of these emotions just triggered by one element. Something so beautiful, that beyond what it's lacking, it continues to be just amazing.

That's why I own one hundred and seventy-six films on DVD, as well as seventy-nine seasons of twenty-six series'. It's a pretty extensive collection, but it's a part of me, a part of my life that is crucial and important to who I am as a person. I can be moved so wholly and extensively, that, for one moment,  nothing else matters except being in that moment.

Alright, I think I've taken up enough of your time.

Always,

M.